Ami publishes "Pirene's Fountain," a poetry
journal. Her poems have appeared in various journals and she is working
on her third novel. She holds a master's degree and has studied
Counseling and English literature. She enjoys a diversity of genres in
reading and writing, reflected by her eclectic style. Ami is of Indian
heritage, born in Paris, France. She has been married for 30 years and
has two grown sons.

Of Gardens and Painted Things

I

A quality of peace
articulated,
each syllable
painted carefully
like garden gates,
redolent with lime
and oleander.
Don't bother
trying to figure out
how long it's going to last
or which way the breeze
is headed.
Depends on where
the leaves settle.

II

From a smoky mirror
echoes bounce like fire-flies,
burning the air,
catching awareness with
a little sizzle and moan.
Secrets of the tongue
seduced, pried loose from
imprisoned ghosts of past,
and settle like white blossoms
on the grass.

III

With a shovel
bury them under
the moist loam
before they grow larger
than the universe, uncontained.
They writhe and fight,
the painted white lies.
There, in private invasion,
a rare, green rose thrusts its shoots
with a spume of fire.